Tuesday, December 11th 2018

Happy Tuesday everyone!

What a beautiful snowy day here in Ottawa!

The snow seemed to fall like magic all day long. It was so lovely to see.

While I love looking at the snow fall, we do know that at times, it makes

for a tough drive to and from school. This is a good time to remind

everyone that on snow days when school transportation is cancelled,

your children are more than welcome to attend a full day at their

homeschool as they will not be able to come to and from the language

class. The schools are prepared for days like this! 

As we speak of transportation, please remember to call STS and report

if your child will be absent for the day.  It is important for the drivers to

be aware if they are not going to pick up a student. I know that some

of you have have already been in contact with the drivers to let them

know personally, so thank you! If you do not have the phone number

of the person who drives your child, please call STS at 6132-723-9677

and they will let the driver know. Thank you for your cooperation with

this manner. 

On Sunday, we entered into the second week of Advent. We have now

begun to prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord at Christmas! 

In our class, we will be looking at gifts we can give Jesus for each week

during Advent. These gifts are not be the kind we can purchase at

Tory R' Us! I will be encouraging the students to think about how we

can help each other, be kind and love our neighbour in an effort to give

back during this season. We have spoken about how one kindness,

one simple act or word can make a BIG difference.

This is the spirit of Christmas! 

Our learning in the past few weeks has mostly involved around our

special Advent season. We have looked closely at the advent wreath

and what each week represents. The students have listened to a few

different versions of the Christmas Story and the continuous

conversation surrounding the magic of this blessed day has been delightful.

Our Christmas vocabulary words have also been a big focus. We have

included common words used throughout Advent and in discussion for the

preparation of Jesus as well as words that help us describe the magic of the

North Pole and Santa! We have used these words to describe our hopes for

Christmas and how we can show kindness to others. We also used the

words to write a letter to Santa! I am super excited to see what he says

when he writes back!  

We will not be learning any new word wall words for 2018. Please continue to

review and practice the words they have been learning all year.

If you are looking for some homework, this is a great time of year to get

cozy and read. Talk about the stories that you are reading. You can always

write some sentences about the story and draw pictures about the different

story elements!  Just talking and asking questions about the book is a great

way to reinforce what we are doing at school. In class, we use something

called a story builder to look at the different elements of each story. It goes

a little something like this:

**What happens at the beginning of the story? What is it about?

**Who are the characters in the story?

**What is the setting of the story?

**What is the problem in the story?

**What happens in the story? Tell me what happens first, second,

third and finally?

**How is the problem solved?

**How does the story end?

These questions can really help deepen the understanding of

narrative stories.

Throughout the year, we have been very focused on becoming better

readers! Each student is at a different place in his/her reading journey

and we are celebrating each step, both big and small on this journey!

The students are using many different reading strategies to decode when

they come to a word that they do not know. 

Here are the strategies that we have been learning about.  As I just

mentioned, as students progress in their reading, they will be

working on different strategies to help them out! Ask them which

strategy they are using now. Maybe they can show you how they

use it while reading their Snuggle Book. 😊

There are many charitable efforts happening here at SJA, including an

dvent sock tree and a Hat drive.  If you would like to donate any new

socks, hats, mittens, scarves or non-perishable food items, they will be

used to help keep little ones throughout the city stay warm and fed during

this winter season! 

I know I say this often, but I am so proud of each and every one of my

students. It can be very overwhelming going to two different schools,

having multiple teachers and leaving friends from one school or another.  

These kids are strong and resilient! I am thankful to be able to spend my

days learning with them! 

As we move through December I know it will be very busy. Please do not

hesitate to give me a call or write a note in the communication book if you

have ANY questions or concerns. 

Mrs. Faloon